Kleio, Muse of History

"The Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house." Audre Lorde

"Why instead don't we take posession of, why don't we own, the tradition?" Marilyn Nelson

Trumpet-handed Kleio, the proclaimer
Kleio, of great deeds the celebrator
walks in train behind the battle’s victor.

S’pose she’s not to blame for the erasure
of folks like Janez Lawson, calculators
safely bringing home the lunar landers—
seeds upon the path to our computers.

Jane Schoolcraft, sound of rushing stars
Daisy Lampkin, anti-lynching founder
Polly Bemis, Salmon River settler
Bessie Stringfield, motorcycle rider
other names the textbooks don’t uncover…

Kleio, Mnemosyne’s eldest daughter
couldn’t spare a line for these foremothers.
Kleio: laurel-crowned collaborator
glad to serve the goals of the oppressor—
or a victim, chained and dragged, a prisoner
in the triumph of the sneering conqueror?

History is written by the winners
until we hear the voices of the Other
until we claim the tongues of our ancestors.
Poetry in sidewalk cracks and gutters,
graffiti on the house-walls of the Master
are words that revolutionaries utter.


Note: This poem is a work in progress. My intention is to continue to add names of women of color who played important roles in the history of the US, and who have received little or no recognition.

Suggestions appreciated.

Books Available
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside